In the business world, new opportunities often come with a tangled web of tasks. One document is sent with a list of where energies should focus. Minutes later, this has been altered due to a review. How does a freelance employee work through this mess to develop an orderly sense of priorities?
One of the first lines of fire is an immediate superior. When there are diverging interests does one ask or assume that silence is approval? I have recently learned the hard way, again, because a project requiring email, phone and other contacts has been through several revisions. I thought a comment was made about outsourcing the creation of a contact list. Without being sure, a file was opened (about two weeks old) containging a "To Do" list with this activity in the number one position.
Sadly, instead of communicating with the CEO first, collation of the materials was started only to find out I was right. There is a fine line at which there is too much communication and the door is opened to begging for micromanagement. I have a strong need to avoid this at all costs. Sometimes, however, ensuring the vision of the overseer matches my own is quite productive.
